Even though I probably don’t know all I should about the Constitution of the United States, thanks to a new book by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) — lifetime 99% conservative ranking at Heritage Action — I know a lot more than I used to.
After reading Our Lost Constitution: The Willful Subversion of America’s Founding Document, I can say with certainty that I have gained a better understanding about how awesome this document truly is, and how it holds the only hope we have in America to see the damage done by decades of progressive politics reversed.
No, that’s not it. It’s the only chance she has to survive.
Using his love and appreciation of the Constitution, Senator Lee shares from his heart as he successfully gives the reader an accurate documentation of the rise and fall of six of the founding document’s most vital and indispensable provisions.
While there are many books written about the Constitution, previous efforts tended to be “professorial,” boring the reader with information that makes you feel like you’re sitting in a college classroom preparing for a final exam. That’s not the case with this book.
One of the primary themes of Senator Lee’s book is meant to show how far Washington, D.C. has drifted from her roots, and how this has led to incredible abuses by our elected officials, such as:
- The Origination Clause says that all bills to raise taxes must originate in the House of Representatives, but contempt for the clause ensured the passage of Obamacare.
- The Fourth Amendment protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures, but the NSA now collects our private data without a warrant.
- The Legislative Powers Clause means that only Congress can pass laws, but unelected agencies now produce ninety-nine out of every one hundred pages of legal rules imposed on the American people.
From the Ku Klux Klan to FDR, Senator Lee shows us how there have been many who have abused or outright rejected the key provisions of the Constitution intended to maintain the balance of power the Founders knew would be necessary for our Republic to survive. However, he also documents the stories of patriots over the centuries who have defended it against those who would destroy it.
In the last chapter of the book, Senator Lee gives some pointers on what we can do to reclaim the Constitution. At the end of that chapter, he quotes these words from a letter penned by George Washington to his nephew in 1787 as he expressed his confidence in the rightness of the newly proposed document:
“The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.”
Sums it up perfectly, doesn’t it?
America has lost its way due to the blatant disregard given the Constitution by those in power. It’s time to change that; and I heartily recommend Our Lost Constitution as an excellent starting point to make it happen.
